By 2000, nearly two decades into their filmmaking careers, Joel and Ethan Coen had amassed a profile filled with features centered on the past. To simply label those movies as period pieces, however, would be an inaccurate observation. Their films, including “Barton Fink,” “Miller’s Crossing,” and “The Hudsucker Proxy,” to only name a select few, used a postmodern approach to look back on the past, which gave them a contemporary feeling.
Such modern aesthetics gave the films a timeless quality, and made the drama and the absurd comedy of their pictures sharper as a result. This is highlighted in their early millennium releases, 2001’s “The Man Who Wasn’t There” and, most notably, 2000’s “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” It was with these two releases that the filmmaking brothers took a more directly stylistic approach, making use of technical advancements and other aesthetics to give a sharper visual presentation to their latest works. The use of this style in conjunction to character and tone is the basis behind the latest video in “The Directors Series.”
The nearly 25-minute analysis first focuses on how they used the influence of music, Homer’s “The Odyssey,” “Sullivan’s Travels” and George Clooney’s star power — which led the Oscar winner to deliberately play against his image as a number of buffoonish characters for the filmmakers, in films like “Intolerable Cruelty,” “Burn After Reading” and this year’s “Hail, Caesar!” — to create another shining gem with “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” But it’s also their earthy color grading, wider aspect ratio, impeccable production design and the great, Grammy-winning soundtrack that complimented the film greatly.
Audiences taken by the Coens thanks to their newfound success, however, would perhaps find themselves alarmed by their follow-up, “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” a B&W murder noir without the joy of ‘O, Brother.’ But with Billy Bob Thornton giving the lead performance, combined with the filmmakers’ signature dry dark humor and the high-profile supporting cast, including Frances McDormand and the late James Gandolfini, the film’s status was elevated to that of the directors’ other, equally great works.
This video is an exceptional examination of the Coens’ eighth and ninth films, so do yourself a favor and check it out below.